I’ve been hanging on to this recipe for quite a while now and finally have found the perfect time to post it! I am also thrilled to say that I’m posting this in conjunction with GRAIN who are graciously sponsoring a giveaway on my Instagram page this week, so definitely check that out! This recipe is everything I love - a great cookie, made in large part with locally sourced and foraged ingredients.

Over the past few months I’ve been switching over to exclusively using GRAIN flour in my baking. You may recall that I’ve already written a little about baking with their 100% traceable flours and legumes in my Douglas-fir cookie post, as well as my sumac curd and frangipane galette recipe. It makes me so happy that I can know not only which areas of Canada my flour came from, but I can know down to the towns it was grown in, and in some cases the individual farmers who grew it. The other awesome thing, is that the pricing is really not so different from average grocery store prices (I’m not talking the super deals you can get at Costco or anything, just your basic supermarket kind of thing). At my local Save on Foods, you can expect to pay almost $7 for 2.5 kilos of flour, and that’s the price for the store brand, non-organic flour. Two kilos of sifted red spring wheat flour from GRAIN comes to about $11 if you buy it as a monthly subscription. You also get free shipping on any orders that come to above $50, and it all arrives super quickly. I’ve had a few months of my subscription already, and love baking with it. There is so much character to this flour, and I have yet to find something to bake that doesn’t come out as good or better than the version made with conventional flour (it even works in laminated pastry)!

Sumac berries infusing in cold water.

Strained and completed sumac infusion.

I have to admit, that making these cookies is a bit of an involved process. This is especially true if you are foraging the sumac, and processing it yourself as I did. Here are some instructions that are very helpful if you want to go that route. If not, you can usually find dried and ground sumac at specialty spice stores, and I even saw it at my local Bulk Barn (bonus shopping here because at some locations you can bring your own container and your purchase will be zero-waste). I’m sure there are online options as well.

Sumac is a shrub that grows native in many areas of North America. You can identify it by it’s compound leaves, and large, compact berry clusters that stick straight up from the branches. The berries aren’t juicy, and they are covered by tiny hairs, and malic acid which gives it the distinct sour, almost citrus-like flavour. In most areas you’ll want to harvest the berries in July, and before any large rainfall hits as this will wash away much of the malic acid. That said, it’s not unheard of that sumac berries are still harvestable later on in the year - just rub them with your finger, and then lick it to see if your finger tastes sour (that will be the malic acid that transferred to your finger). If they still taste sour they are still good to use! The easiest way of processing them is just to bring the berry clusters home and let them dry thoroughly. Store them somewhere they won’t get dusty (I have mine from last summer crammed in a 1/2 gallon vintage mason jar) and they are ready to use whenever you need them.

Some of you may have been told that Sumac is poisonous. In the plant world there are many different common names, and sometimes poisonous and non-poisonous plants even share the same one. This is the case with sumac. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) only grows in swampy areas, whereas the sumac we are looking for (Rhus glabra, Rhus typhina, or Rhus copallina, depending on the species that is local to you) prefers dry landscapes. It also has red berries, whereas poison sumac has white. There really is no chance that you will mistake the two. One thing you will want to be cautious about, is that sumac is related to mangoes, cashews, and poison ivy. If you are especially sensitive to some of these other plants please take caution if you are trying sumac. This post on identifying sumac varieties from Eat the Weeds is an excellent resource, but please make sure you consult more than one resource before eating anything you have foraged.

As always please take care when foraging, and make sure you are 100% certain of what you are gathering and eating. The best option is learning from someone who is an expert on the local plants for your area. Use more than one resource when identifying plants that are new to you like field guides, and reputable online resources - the more specific to your location the better. Spend a lot of time examining the different features of the plant you are looking for. Never be content to identify a plant by one feature alone.

Now to explain more about making the cookies themselves! They do take some time to make, but I promise you the end result is worth it! I originally made these at Christmas time (being inspired by traditional Danish Christmas cookies like Honninghjerter, and Pebernødder) and they were the first to disappear from the cookie platters! The holidays were very busy, and even though I had originally planned to post the recipe back then, but I ran out of time. I think that turned out to be a good thing in the end though, because they are also so perfect for Valentine’s Day!

You’re going to need to start the sumac infusion ideally two days before you want to have the cookies (although you could get away with the day before, but they are better if you have a bit longer for letting the dough chill). All of the colour in these cookies is completely natural - there is no food colouring at all! The lovely pink in the glaze comes from the colour of the sumac infusion itself, and that is also where the sour flavour from the sumac shines the brightest. Since lemon or other citrus is often paired with ginger in holiday baking, I thought sumac would be a delicious pairing with the ginger and I set out working on making a ginger-forward, spice cookie that blended well with the natural sour, fruity flavour of the sumac.

The day after your sumac has infused, start making your dough. This is essentially a sugar cookie with a lot of spices that gets rolled out a little thicker than normal. You’ll also want to make sure you have time to chill the dough for a day if possible. The flavours need time to mingle together in the dough before baking. if you have to speed things up at least chill the dough for a couple hours. This will also make rolling them out easier.

Make sure you leave a fair amount of room between the cookies on the sheet because they tend to puff up a bit, and spread ever so slightly. I also put in the instructions to roll them out a bit thicker than many of these are in the photos. This is because we found out after eating them all that the thicker ones were better!

When your cookies are baked, decorating them is very fun! Prepare your sumac glaze to be a little runnier than your ginger one. You’ll be dipping the cookies into this glaze. Try to let as much excess run off back into the bowl as you can. I found that I had a lot of glaze pooling under the cookies as I let them dry on parchment paper. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because it tasted really good to have extra glaze, but it was a little less professional looking, and the glaze didn’t go as far. If this happens to you too and you run out of glaze just make a little more and keep going. No big deal!

When the cookies are all dipped let them dry before drizzling the ginger glaze over top. This will make sure that when you sprinkle the candied ginger over top it will only stick to the white icing. I did some with candied ginger, and some without, but everyone ended up liking the ones with ginger better. If you’re a little more sensitive to the heat of ginger feel free to leave that step out - they look and taste great without it too!

Sumac Ginger Honey Hearts

Ingredients

For the Cookies

3 cups flour

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup light honey

1 large egg

2 tbsp sumac infusion (prepared ahead of time)

2 tbsp dried sumac powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp fresh ginger (grated, or very finely minced)

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp white pepper

For the Glaze and Decoration

3 cups icing sugar (approximate)

2 tbsp sumac infusion

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk/water

2 tbsp corn syrup (divided)

1 cup candied ginger (to be finely minced)

Takes two days,
serves several dozen cookies depending on the size of the cookie cutter used.

Instructions

Two days before you want the finished cookies, prepare you sumac infusion. If you are using fresh/dried sumac berries, add a couple drupes worth of berries to a pint jar, and combine with 1 cup cold water. Leave in the fridge overnight. If using sumac powder you either purchased or prepared yourself, add 3 tbsp powder to one cup of cold water and leave in the fridge overnight.

The day before you want to bake the cookies prepare the dough. This dough really needs to be chilled overnight to let the flavours come into their own more fully before baking. If you don’t have time for this, at least chill the dough for a couple hours, but overnight will be better.

Cream butter, sugar, and honey together until well emulsified. You shouldn’t be able to see any sugar crystals, and the resulting mixture should be light and fluffy.

Add the egg, vanilla, sumac powder, 2 tbsp sumac infusion, and continue to cream the mixture until well emulsified. It should all look like one cohesive mixture with no visible clumps.

Add the salt, baking soda, and spices. Mix well.

Last of all, add the flour slowly, mixing on low. Depending on the humidity levels of the flour and your kitchen you might need to add a little more or less, so keep an eye on the dough as you add the flour and stop early, or add a little extra depending on how it looks and feels. Don’t let the dough get too dry, though. It will firm up and be easier to work with after it spends some time in the fridge, and you don’t want your finished cookies to be too floury. Aim for your dough to be fairly sticky at this point, but not overly runny.

Transfer to an airtight container and leave in the fridge overnight, or at a bare minimum a couple hours.

At this point preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out the cookies to a 1 cm (or just under 1/2 inch) thickness, using a little more flour on your work surface and rolling pin to keep the dough from sticking. Cut into hearts, and continue this process until all your dough is used up. I don’t find too big of a difference after re-rolling the excess dough a few times. I also feel that ingredients - especially foraged ones - are precious, so I like to make sure I use as much of my dough as possible. The yield here will depend on the size of cookie cutter you use, but you should end up with a couple dozen cookies either way.

Leave some space between the cookies on the baking trays, because they do tend to puff up and spread just a little bit, but they will definitely still maintain their heart shape after all of this.

Bake the cookies until they are just barely beginning to brown on the edges. This will be about 15 minutes per tray, depending on how your oven runs. Mine seems to run a bit cooler than most, so I often end up needing to leave things in a little longer. You can also usually tell when the cookies are almost done because you’ll start to smell them as they bake.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to completely cool before you start decorating them.

While waiting for the cookies to cool this is a good time to start preparing your glazes. You’ll do one in a larger amount with the sumac infusion, and one with ginger powder and vanilla.

Combine 2 cups icing sugar, 1 tbsp corn syrup, and sumac infusion to make your first glaze. Add the infusion slowly so that you get the right consistency. You want it to be thick enough to coat whatever is dipped in it, but runny enough that the excess will still drip off when you dip the cookies. If you overdo it, you can always add more icing sugar to thicken.

For your second glaze, add the remaining cup of icing sugar and corn syrup, as well as the ginger powder, vanilla extract, and milk/water (go slowly as you add this - you may not need it all). You want this glaze to be slightly thicker than the other since it will be used as a drizzle over the finished cookies.

Dip all the cookies in the sumac glaze first, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl as much as possible rather than just leaving them to drip on the parchment paper or whatever you’re going to let them dry on (this just makes a tidier looking end result - if you don’t get it all don’t worry you’ll just have some of the glaze pooling underneath the cookie). I started having problems with pooling, so I started leaving the freshly dipped cookies on a cooling rack for a few minutes before transferring to parchment to continue drying.

Drizzle cookies with the ginger glaze, and while this is still wet sprinkle with the very finely chopped candied ginger. Allow this to dry completely before you handle the cookies.

While the prize for the giveaway on my Instagram feed was sponsored by GRAIN, this post is not. I have been their customer for the past few months and wholeheartedly endorse their product based on my own experience. All thoughts and opinions expressed are completely my own.

My favourite photo from January. We traded a friend some some sad leftover squash (for her chickens) and a garden hose we didn’t need anymore, and we got these gorgeous eggs. The best kind of trades are when both parties feel they got the better end of the deal!

One Friday each month I like to link up to various other blogs and resources I find on the internet and share some of the things I’ve found to be helpful or interesting. Take a look and maybe find out something new!

Miscellaneous

If you’re interested in cloth diapers, here’s a discount code for Nuggles Diapers by following this link, or entering code: AFORAGERSHOME at checkout! This is an amazing company run by a local mom and we love using them on our kids!

In order to support my blogging endeavours, some of these links are affiliate links for which I will receive a very small commission should you purchase that item. I never link to any product in this way that I haven’t experienced myself and would absolutely recommend to others commission or no!

This is a project I’ve been wanting to make for quite a while. If you’ve visited my shop, you’ll know that I work with quite a lot of scrap fabric, and that I’m always up for a good project to help use up the extras in my stash. I have a lot of pieces of fabric that are beautiful - and in some cases sentimental - but are far too small to make anything with, and I’ve been resisting cutting them up just to use for my coasters, baskets, or weaving projects.

One day it occurred to me that Little Forager would probably really like some magnetic letters to play with. He’s been getting really good at his alphabet, and even has started to recognize some very small words. Initially I thought of those typical plastic ones that almost everyone had on the fridge, but thankfully before I went out and bought them, I realized that there was nothing stopping me from making some!

Most of you know by now that I’m a proponent on low/zero-waste living, and that if I can avoid buying something new that is plastic, I will. You’ll also know by now that I’m always up for a good DIY project, and this one turned out so well I wanted to share it here! I also have the letter template I use available for free download (made available as a free digital file in my shop) but if there is a font you particularly like go ahead and make your own version! I will say that this was about the narrowest I would want the letters to be, because if you are going to be putting magnets inside you need quite a bit more width than you think.

As far as sourcing your materials, I would encourage you to reuse as much as possible here rather than buying 26 pieces of brand new fabric just for making these. You could even recycle some old clothing you have that is too worn out to donate in good conscience. You do want to consider that the magnets need to be strong enough to hold through the layer of fabric you choose. I just used regular “flexible magnets” that I found at Michael’s, but there are stronger options, and some of my fabric was almost thick enough to need it. I also only used one magnet per letter, and afterward I wished that for some of the letters I had included a couple more (for example: M, U, V, S, G, or any of the other letters that were more of a longer shape with few connecting points). In the end I am very happy with what I made, and I am actually giving a set of these away on my Instagram feed, so head on over there for more details about that!

The process for making these was pretty simple, although some of the curvy letters were more tedious to sew than others. You’ll want to be very patient with the letter G, for example. I chose to (mostly) match my thread colour to my fabric, but that isn’t technically necessary. I just have a large stash of that from other projects. I also used leftover polyester batting to make them quilted. If you don’t have this, I do recommend using something to make the letters stiffer. Even with the batting I found that a few of the ones I made with thinner fabric could have used some interfacing to make them hold their shape a little more. It’s something that’s not super noticeable, but having made them I might consider changing that next time. I also have the photos in a bit of a different order than the steps I’m going to list below. The reason for that is half way through making them I realized I could save myself some work if I did all the sewing before I trimmed the edges.

Making your letters:

Print out the template linked below, or make your own with your preferred font.

Cut out two pieces of your main fabric per letter. It is easiest if you do this all at once by folding the fabric so that if there is a right side (the side of the fabric that is intended to be seen) they are both facing out when you cut.

If some of your fabric is very thin, you might want to consider cutting out two pieces of interfacing for the letters that will need it. Iron or baste these to the necessary pieces.

Cut one piece of fibre fill, quilt batting, or other repurposed fluffy material per letter, but don’t cut right to the edge of the pattern piece, or cut out any of the holes in the middle of the letter. This will be easiest if you leave a bunch hanging over the edge to trim later. I actually just pinned my cut out letters straight to the fibre fill, and cut roughly around them to get these pieces.

Make a sandwich with the quilt batting in the middle, and the fabric letter pieces on the outside with the right sides facing outward. Sew around the edge of the letter keeping about 1/4 inch from the edge of the fabric. Make sure you leave an opening where you want to insert your magnet(s). Don’t forget to sew around any of the inside parts of the letter like in the letter B for example.

Insert your magnet(s), and sew the opening you left shut. If your magnet isn’t in the perfect position at this point don’t worry - you can still move it around later if you need to.

Sew around the letter one more time so that you have a double row of stitches all around. This will help to prevent excessive fraying, although you will find that there will still be a little bit, especially if your chosen fabric has a looser weave. Again don’t forget to go around the middle parts of the letters that need it.

Trim your letters (this will likely include trimming the edge of the fabric as well as the excess fibre fill or batting) very close to the second row you sewed while being careful not to actually snip any of your stitches. If this does happen make sure you go over that area again and try to reconstruct your stitches so your letter doesn’t come apart.

Please keep an eye on these from time to time as your child plays with them, and check for holes, stitching that has come apart, or some other structural integrity. You don’t want the seam to come apart and have the magnet free, as there is a very real health risk for children who swallow magnets.

Note: clicking the above “add to cart” will prompt you for a credit card number, but this is not required since the product is free. Just skip that part and click continue!

Let me know in the comments, or contact me if you have any more questions! I’d love to hear all about how it turned out for you! Again, please do look over your letters periodically for wear and tear that might lead to holes where the magnet could fall out. I hope you have as much fun making these as I did!

Dandelion leaves are very nutritious and abundant! Consider allowing them to grow in your yard and you’ll have the lowest maintenance food crop ever!

This year I have decided to pare down my goal setting just a little bit. I used to write out ten different goals for each of these categories, but I realized I wasn’t achieving even half of them. I also realized while looking over my goals for the past few years that I would write one or two larger scale general goals, and then the rest would be just about specific plants. While this isn’t a terrible way to set goals, I’ve found so many things - from weather, vacations, family growth, to other random surprises - can derail the search for growing or finding specific plants, and various things in my life kept doing just that. This year I have a new baby coming, and a smaller garden, so I figured five goals for each category would be a much more fulfilling way of going about things! We’ll see how I like that for this year and maybe next year I’ll do something different. Who knows!

The whole point of why I set these goals is so that I have some inspiration for the year going forward, not about the number of things I actually accomplish in the end or not. I hope you find some inspiration from my goals, and maybe you’ll set some of your own! If you do please let me know in the comments below because I’d love to hear about it!

I hear magnolia is edible, but it doesn’t grow a lot here. I’d love to try it some day since I saw so many people posting lovely things about it on their instagram feeds last year.

Foraging Goals

Learn more from the local indigenous community.

I feel really strongly that to forage ethically anywhere in North America you have to consider the fact that there is already so much history here of people and their relationship - sometimes even a spiritual relationship - to wild plants and resources. I’ve done small amounts of online research in the past, but I’d ideally love to learn more from actual people. if this is impossible I will definitely be seeking out other resources like books and museums. I feel like this is an important step as I continue to respectfully forage and explore in land that is unceded traditional Secwepemc territory.

Mushrooms

You might be thinking that you remember just reading me say that I wasn’t going to include specifics in my goals list this year, and you’d be correct, but I still want to include mushrooms as a goal of mine this year regardless. I’ve included this as a goal in my past lists, but aside from finding someone selling morels at the farmers’ market last spring, I haven’t really done much in this area. This is such a broad category that I have very little experience with, so even if I don’t end up going out and picking huge amounts to bring home and eat, I still want this to be a focus of learning for this year. One small thing I’ve been doing is to photograph and research the mushrooms I do come across, and I feel that has been a really great start. I missed my local opportunity to do a guided mushroom walk last year, so making one of those happen this fall is something I am very interested in.

With the help of the amazing Mushroom Identification group on Facebook, I think this is an old Turkey Tail mushroom that I came across last spring near the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC. Even in its old age it is still beautiful!

Fishing

I know this one is also kind of specific too, but we actually didn’t get out fishing once last year! I’m not totally sure how practical this will be now that we’re going to be a family of four, but I still want to make sure I give it a try this year. Or maybe it’s something I can delegate to Mr. Forager to go find a fishing buddy and bring back some of the delicious local trout that are abundant here! Either way I’d like to try to make it a priority to go out at least a few times this year.

Wild Staples

I definitely want to concentrate on this one more strongly this year. I am very curious about using acorns, and other plants - maybe even pine bark - to create wild flours. There are also other plans I’ve heard about but have very little experience with like cattails that are so useful and nutritious.

If you don’t want to keep dandelions in your yard consider digging up the plants rather than spraying for them. Every part of these little cheery flowers is edible from root to blossom!

Find more flavours.

This might be a bit of a catchall category, but one of the things that I have loved about this foraging journey I’ve been on is finding the new flavours of these local plants. Last year I got a chance to experiment with Douglas-fir cones, for example, and they turned out to be so delicious, and the cookies and flavoured sugar I made with them were so lovely. I’ve also been having so much fun with sumac in the kitchen, so I can’t wait to get out there and find some more delicious flavours to experiment with this year.

Haskap bushes in my old garden just as they start to get their leaves in the spring.

Garden Goals

Research container gardening.

If you’ve been following along with my blog over the past little while you’ll know that recently I’ve had to say goodbye to my garden of the past four seasons. This year’s garden will be a balcony one, so I am making it a priority to look into what container garden systems work best. I’ve had to consider a lot of different things so far since my deck is south facing, and there is no spigot for watering. I’ll be posting in a few weeks about the kinds of solutions we’ve come up with, and I can’t wait to share it all with you since I know I’m not the only one who would like to continue producing at least some food with only my balcony as garden space.

Research varieties that work best in small spaces and containers.

This one is very related to the above goal, but I felt it was different enough to be considered its own focus. Not only will my garden be dependent on coming up with a system that works (above goal), it will only be successful if I grow the right plants for my environment. I am actually a little bit excited about my new challenge, because I am going to get a whole lot more sun than I used to in my north facing, shady garden. I am thinking I might actually have some decent success with heat loving crops like tomatoes and peppers, and I can’t wait to see what happens!

Early spring in my old garden.

Same view, after a few months of growing.

Continue to produce food.

This goal is very important to me. I know I’m not going to be able to do this on the scale that I am used to, but I still want my garden to be a way to provide at least a little bit of food for my family. I really like working with food crops - especially heirlooms and other interesting varieties. There will always be flowers in my garden too since I want to attract lots of pollinators and beneficial insects otherwise the food crops on my balcony will struggle.

Look into Community Garden options.

I’m not sure if this is something I’ll have time for with the new baby on the way, but I do know that there are lots of community gardens in town, so I’d like to at least look into it a little bit and see what kind of commitment would be involved. I rented a community garden plot one season, and it really didn’t work out, because of the location. I wasn’t able to get there as often as I wanted, and nothing I grew there thrived. After that experience, I know now what kind of things I would grow in a community plot, and what I would keep at home. I think it might be something I could handle if I was growing garlic, rhubarb, or other things that don’t need as much daily attention.

One of my springtime harvests from last year. Lots of leafy greens!

Grow lots of herbs.

This one will be very convenient to focus on for me, since a lot of herbs do well in smaller spaces, and that’s definitely what I’ll be working with! I also think they will help create a nice environment on my balcony, and help add a little bit of biodiversity to my other plants. This is one of the easiest ways I can still grow things to eat as well, since snipping some herbs from the balcony and bringing them right in to my kitchen is so easy. I’m excited about this goal, and am planning to cultivate a large collection!

This year our Epiphany celebrations were pretty low-key, although I did spend a couple days making a really gorgeous galette des rois for our dessert. Even though we didn’t have a big event or anything to write that much about both the glaze for the ham and the dessert featured locally foraged sumac that I gathered in the summer it seemed appropriate to write something up about them. This is “A Forager’s Home”, after all! I am also super happy with how the galette turned out, so even though you wouldn’t be able to make it in time for Epiphany this year, I highly recommend that you try it out sometime for some different event!

My home processed sumac powder.

Sumac grows everywhere in my neighbourhood. It is native to North America, and loves a dry environment, so a lot of people here have used it in the landscaping. If you can’t find some wild, you might see some in a neighbour’s yard and they probably won’t mind sharing a few of the bright red cones with you. Just make sure you ask permission for any foraging you’re doing on private property! There are lots of tutorials online for how to process your own sumac, but I’ve found the easiest way is to dry the drupes, and then pulse them in a blender (this removes the berries from the large, very hard seeds), and then sift the red powder out from the larger pieces leftover. For this recipe you can just use the whole berry clusters submerged in water rather than going through the trouble of grinding them, or you can do what I did - pulse the water and drupes together so they will infuse to their fullest potential.

Epiphany dinner this year was ham, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies (roasted in the pan underneath the ham for maximum deliciousness), and Brussels sprouts (roasted with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and dried cranberries).

The dinner was delicious, although the cut of ham we had was a little difficult to work with. I love the quality of the pork we received from our friends’ farm, but the butcher seemed to do some interesting things to it. There was a lot of connective tissue in the middle of what was labelled a “bone in ham” (note the conspicuous lack of a bone). I’m not sure if this was just because one large ham was portioned into smaller roasts, or because it was actually boned, and that this was the result. Either way I was disappointed not to have the bone to do a split pea soup with afterward, but sometimes that’s how things go.

I am happy to report that the honey glaze I wrote about a few days ago worked perfectly on this ham. I used Jaime Oliver’s method of poaching the ham first, and then finishing it in the oven. I think it turned out fairly nicely although I’m not sure if the poaching was necessary or not. I may have left it in the oven too long afterward because some of it was a bit on the dry side. However, I am planning on using the poaching liquid to use as soup stock now since I don’t have a bone in this ham to make any with.

Sumac drupes infusing in water. Such a beautiful colour!

The main thing I wanted to share in this post was the recipe for the galette. You can use store-bought or make your own puff pastry. I recently did a workshop at Blue Bunch Farm on making laminated pastry, so I thought I’d give it a go making my own. I am really pleased with the result, although I am sure it doesn’t look terribly professional. I have to say that now that I understand the process of making puff pastry it isn’t as intimidating as it seemed, and if you’re interested in giving it a shot I’d say go for it! My pastry has a really rich colour and flavour because I used GRAIN Red Spring Wheat Sifted flour.

I started it all by infusing some sumac drupes in water overnight in the fridge (you can also use ground sumac you purchased for this infusion - just try googling a recipe for “sumac tea”, or do a bit of experimenting to get the right ratio of sumac to water). The resulting liquid was such a gorgeous colour I was immediately excited to make it into a curd for the galette. Sumac has a tangy, fruity flavour reminiscent in some ways of citrus. To turn the sumac liquid into a curd, you follow the basic process for making a lemon curd. Combine the sugar and eggs, add them into the sumac liquid in a double boiler, and cook it gently - stirring constantly - until thick. Add a few pats of unsalted butter at the very end (optional if you need to be dairy free - this is just for looks and a bit of texture, but it will still be delicious without) and you’re done! The only downside was that If found once the sumac infusion was heated it lost it’s brilliant red colour and turned sort of brownish. Because I knew I was going to be layering this with frangipane I decided to add some food colouring to make it a bit more visually appealing. I don’t love using artificial colour in my recipes, but we really do eat with our eyes first, and I wanted the two layers to be visually distinct in the finished tart, so I felt it was necessary. If you have strong feelings about it feel free to omit it. It will still taste delicious!

Sumac infusion.

Finished sumac curd.

For the frangipane, I’m sure my methods weren’t exactly orthodox, but they were effective! I just threw everything together in my Vitamix blender and pureed until it was all smooth. This may not be typical frangipane, but it was delicious, and very smooth. I was happy with the result in the end, so either copy my method, or follow something more traditional. Either will be just perfect.

For the puff pastry, I used the recipe I learned from Monika at Blue Bunch Farm during my workshop (I’ll be reviewing my experience with the workshops there in a future post, so if you want more information “watch this space”). I really like making it, and the most difficult part is just the amount of time it takes to put it together. Feel free to use store-bough if you like, but this will taste a whole lot more delicious if you try to find some that uses real butter in their recipe. I also found I had very little problem with the filling escaping my pastry this year. In my previous post about Epiphany you can see the frangipane seeping out the sides of my tart. My finished tart dough was flavourful, and very flaky. I think it has a bit more personality than one made with conventional flour as well since the GRAIN flour I used is sifted, but nothing at all like your standard bleached all purpose flour. It’s not exactly whole wheat, but there is a lot more of the whole grain in the finished product which leads to more flavour. This flour is also milled so freshly that you need to keep it in the fridge or freezer, because it will go rancid at room temperature. It’s beautiful flour and I love working with it.

Once you have your pastry and your fillings, cut in a circular shape, spread a layer of frangipane, and then cover that with a layer of sumac curd. Put the top layer of pastry over everything and crimp the edges tightly so that none of your filling escapes. Make surface level slits in a pattern you like on top, and brush with an egg wash. I also sprinkled some sugar over the top just to make it all a little more special and delicious.

Galette des rois! Put one whole almond in the filling if you want to be really traditional. Whoever finds it in their piece wins a special prize!

Sumac Curd Frangipane Galette des Rois

Ingredients

Sumac Curd

1 cup sumac infused water (pulse 3-5 sumac drupes in 1 cup water in a blender and leave in the fridge overnight to infuse)

5 Egg Yolks

1/2 cup sugar

5 tbsp unsalted butter

Frangipane

1/2 cup freshly ground blanched almonds

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Finished Tart

1 recipe puff pastry

1 egg

1 tbsp cream

sugar for dusting

Takes Several Hours,
serves 1 tart.

Instructions

To make the curd, whisk the egg yolks into the sugar, and then combine with the sumac infused water. Cook in a double boiler until mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon. You should be able to see trace lines when you draw your spoon/whisk through while stirring. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Push through a fine mesh sieve just in case some of the egg didn’t cook perfectly.

Combine all the frangipane ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor, and blend on high until smooth. Alternatively whip the butter and sugar together in a mixer until thick and creamy and you can see no sugar crystals. Add the egg and emulsify, and then stir in the vanilla and ground almonds. Beat the mixture until thick, creamy, and homogenous.

Roll out your puff pastry according to your recipe’s instructions and cut two circles. I used an 8 inch cake tin as a pattern to trace. Spread a thick layer of frangipane, leaving a little bit uncovered around the edges. Cover that layer with a layer of sumac curd, and then cover with the other circle of pastry. Crimp edges so that no filling will escape.

Using a sharp knife cut some steam vents on top of the pastry, but don’t cut all the way through to the filling. Whisk the egg and tbsp of cream together and brush on top of pastry. To get a really burnished crust do this in several layers, allowing each coat to dry before adding the next. Sprinkle with sugar

Bake in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 5-10 minutes until the pastry has started to colour. At this point turn the temperature down to 375 degrees, and continue baking for roughly 20 more minutes, or until your pastry is obviously puffed, golden, and fully cooked.